Tag Archives: Unemployment

Last month’s retail sales report for May was taken as the definitive sign that the slump had passed and that the conventional view of the jobs market was finally, if surprisingly belatedly, taking shape. It did not matter to economists that the only basis for that interpretation was seasonal adjustments, which had produced a huge disparity with the unadjusted set. I wrote then:

There is a lot about this “cycle” which is totally upside down, but retail sales in May just might represent the apex of the Orwellian transformation; all on the say so of seasonal adjustments. The worst data in years, comparable only to the worst economic experiences in recent history, are now counted as a “surge” in spending and cause for both optimism and doom.

From The DailyCaller.com, by Elizabeth Dorton, 07/25/13 –
A new report published by the Century Foundation shows that though the unemployment rate is going down, the decreasing numbers aren’t due to a spike in employment rates or job creation. Instead, more people are leaving the work force entirely.

With over three consecutive years of unemployment above 8 percent, September’s still disappointing jobs reportshows an addition of a meager 114,000 jobs. That’s enough to make unemployment drop to 7.8 percent from the 8.1 percent after August.

The number of unemployed persons (12.1 million) dropped by 456,000.

The number of persons unemployed (2.5 million) for less than 5 weeks declined by 302,000.

The number of long-term unemployed persons (jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 4.8 million.

The number of long-term unemployed persons accounted for 40.1 percent of the unemployed.

From The Heritage Foundation (Morning Bell), October 7, 2011 – Yesterday at the White House, President Barack Obama faced the media to once again plug the American Jobs Act–his plan for more stimulus spending, paid for with even more taxes on America’s job creators. And this morning, not a day later, America received a reminder of why a continuation of the President’s tried-and-failed policies is not a prescription for success: In September, the U.S. unemployment rate held steady at a dismal 9.1 percent with 14 million Americans still out of work. About 103,000 jobs were added, but 45,000 of those were simply Verizon strikers returning to work, and the number of long-term unemployed (27 weeks or more) increased by 208,000. Continue reading →

by Star Parker –A Chicago Sun Times article, headlined “The disappearing black middle class,” reports on the disproportionate impact of these hard economic times on blacks.

According to the data, taken from the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, median net worth of white households fell from $134,280 in 2004 to $97,860 in 2009, while over the same period median black household net worth went from $13, 450 to $2,170. Continue reading →